


Kirks Never Change

by twelvedimensional



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: M/M, Tumblr Prompt, everyone in space is a nerd that much is true, shh don't talk to me about generations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-19
Updated: 2016-02-19
Packaged: 2018-05-21 14:53:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6055693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twelvedimensional/pseuds/twelvedimensional
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim Kirk talks to Spock. A lot. Not just his Spock-- he rambles on and on to the Other Spock (Old Spock? Spock Prime? Jim's forgotten what he's said he wanted to be called) and occasionally wishes that he could talk to the Other Jim instead, just so he can propose an idea and not have it shut down by logic from two versions of the same Vulcan.<br/>Because Jim has a dilemma: he's kind of starting to like his Spock. A lot. And he can't just <em>ask</em> either Spock for advice on that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kirks Never Change

The _Enterprise_ is in the middle of charting another dreary sector when a message comes in.

 _Ping_ , goes Jim’s PADD.

He ignores it and keeps talking to Yeoman Rand.

 _Ping_ , the PADD beeps out again.

“You know, Janice, I knew this woman– Chris Chapel, her name was– I think you’d really get along with her–”

_Ping! Ping!_

Jim closes his eyes briefly, sucks in a deep, captainly breath, and picks up his data PADD. “Hang on a sec, Janice.” He opens the three (no, four) messages, all from… Spock?

 _Old_ Spock?

There’s something about “the Nexus” and “temporal-spatial shifts” and “temporary but permanent enough”, and the barely-contained excitement (excitement?) pouring through the words is enough to make Jim jump out of the captain’s chair, babble something about Sulu taking the conn, and motion for Spock and McCoy to follow him before he takes off sprinting down the halls.

The whirr of a turbolift and the whoosh of a pair of doors later, the three are stepping into Jim’s quarters. McCoy’s still grousing, Spock’s still peppering him with questions, but Jim just heads straight for his computer.

And sure enough, the computer in his quarters is lit up with a call from the other Spock. He punches “accept”, and then there are two people on the screen, one tall, austere, and familiar, and the other…

The ambassador regards him warmly. “Captain Kirk,” he says, nodding toward Jim, “I would like to introduce you to Captain Kirk.”

* * *

The Jims (or “the Kirks”, as Spock says, or, according to Bones, “the causes of my premature death”), communicate regularly after that first meeting. It’s nice to bounce ideas off someone who thinks like you do, but with more experience. Sure, Kirk always mumbles something unintelligible about the Prime Directive before offering up suggestions, and Spock Prime can be heard sighing in an all-too-human-way in the background at the “blatant disregard of destiny”, or whatever he calls it.

But it’s fun to compare notes and see how you’d have turned out in another life, Jim thinks during one such conversation. Spock Prime gives him a pointed eyebrow-raise through the screen and Jim wonders if the older Vulcan can somehow read his mind.

That’s not how it works, though, right? He’ll have to ask Spock about that later.

The thirteenth (or maybe thirtieth– he’s bored, alright? He’s on shore leave and neither Spock nor Bones are with him) he calls Kirk is for gift-giving advice. He’s standing in the middle of a gift shop (the people on this planet really know how to monetize the fact that it’s a common shore leave destination), one hand hefting his PADD up and the other picking up and inspecting each of the items on the shelves of the little store.

Kirk appears on his PADD’s screen, looking groggy. “Whduhwntnahjm,” says the older man, and Jim, by virtue of his knowledge of pre-coffee Kirk-speak, deciphers that as “What do you want _now_ , Jim?”

Jim frowns. He hasn’t been calling too often for this sort of thing, has he? “Okay, so you know how Spock likes music? I mean, I’m guessing that your Spock’s like that too.”

Kirk yawns. “He plays the Vulcan lute.”

Jim knocks a little statuette off a shelf and cringes as it shatters on the floor. “Yeah,” he says hastily, scuttling over to another corner of the store, hoping no one’s noticed. “So I was thinking, like, why not get him a present? ‘Cause they sell these weird violin-things here, after all! We’re celebrating a year on this mission tomorrow, and he’s always going ‘Oh, _fascinating_ , blah blah’ whenever we meet some super-musical aliens, so I think that means he’s interested in musical instruments, and, I mean, he always does that eyebrow raise and eye crinkle thing whenever someone offers to play music for us and that normally is a good thing– does he do that around you? And–”

“Hang on, hang on.” Kirk holds up a hand, eyes sparking with amusement. “Too much information for the early morning. You’re getting Spock a present?”

Jim can feel his ears heating up (a sure sign that they’re bright red). “We’re all getting gifts for each other! I got some Romulan ale for Bones, Sulu’s probably giving Chekov a plant or something, Uhura and Carol are giving each other gifts– but I didn’t ask them what because I’m kinda scared of them–” He’s blabbing out random things by now, hoping to distract Kirk, but the other man’s grin only widens.

“But you were so worried about getting the right gift for Spock that you turned to your _older self from an alternate universe_ for help,” says Kirk. “Oh, don’t worry,” he adds, glancing at Jim’s presumably bright red face, “I’ll help you; we don’t want to let Spock down.”

Something about the way Kirk says it makes something click in Jim’s brain: the other Spock’s emotional reaction to finding him, the way that Spock always seems to know what Jim’s thinking–

“Oh my God, you’re in love!”

“Oh my God, you _are_ in love!” says Kirk at the exact same time, and they stare each other down for a good five seconds.

“What– but– why didn’t your Spock tell me about this?!” Jim all but screeches after his brain has rebooted.

Kirk says something about altering destiny that Jim’s pretty sure was copied from Spock. “I didn’t realize things would turn out like that in this universe too,” says Kirk, beaming brightly enough to light up a room. “You have Carol on board the  _Enterprise_ , so I thought–”

Jim’s brain suffers another minor shutdown once again. “Carol’s dating Uhura,” he offers weakly once he’s recovered. “Wait, so you can help me! You know Spock! You can help me figure out how to–”

“I don’t quite think that’s how it works. But…” Kirk pauses and then smiles cryptically (Jim fights the urge to run screaming from his other self, because that expression never bodes well). “He _does_  like Italian food. Don’t try to seduce him  _immediately_ , alright? That doesn’t work, trust me.”

“Seduce whom, Captain?” comes a voice from behind Jim, who nearly sends an entire aisle of shelves toppling over with his start of surprise. Glancing back down at his PADD, he realizes the screen’s gone black and Kirk has vanished.

“Dammit,” he says, borrowing a page from Bones’s book, clearing his throat and shuffling awkwardly. “I thought you didn’t want to go on shore leave.”

Spock raises an eyebrow and does the eye crinkle thing and Jim, cliche as it seems, goes weak at the knees. “I was ultimately… persuaded by your multiple attempts to make me ‘take a break’. Yeoman Rand informed me you would be here.”

“Oh.”

There is a pause, only interrupted by tinkly notes playing over the speakers in the shop. Jim hopes he’s not standing close enough to the shelf of musical instruments for Spock to figure out his present.

“I do not believe shore leave would be productive in my case,” offers Spock at last, clasping his hands behind his back. “I am a Vulcan; I do not require–”

“Hey, Spock,” cuts in Jim, thinking _oh God he’s gonna leave now I need to do something dammit Jim hurry up_ (though part of that may be Bones’s voice in his head), “do you wanna have dinner with me? There’s a really good restaurant around the corner, and the food tastes exactly like Italian food, but I don’t know if Vulcans like garlic, anyway. . ?”

Spock stares at him for a good ten seconds, and for a moment, Jim thinks he’s accidentally used pre-coffee Kirk-speak.

Then Spock _accepts_.

Jim almost faints because the day’s getting to be too much for him, but he manages to transfer his momentum into grabbing Spock by the sleeve and dragging him over to the restaurant before he can change his mind.

And after (the pretty successful, if he’s allowed to say so himself) dinner, Jim checks the messages on his PADD and finds one from Kirk. Not an explanation for ditching him in his hour of peril, of course– Kirks never change– but just a simple, smug, “You’re welcome”.  
  
He contemplates messaging Kirk back with an all-caps angry message demanding an explanation for his vanishing, but he decides against it. After all, Jim’s a busy man– he needs to set up his next date with Spock.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't write AOS fic very often, so I sure hope I got everyone's characterizations right!
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading! I have a tumblr, so scream about space husbands with me at [twelvedimensional.tumblr.com](https://twelvedimensional.tumblr.com/).


End file.
